- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review Applied

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Letter
  • Open Access

Semiconductor photon Bose-Einstein condensate as a practical light source for range finding

Ross C. Schofield1,*, Daniel Lim1, Nathan R. Gemmell1, Edmund Clarke2, Ian Farrer2, Aristotelis Trapalis2, Jon Heffernan2, and Rupert F. Oulton1

  • *Contact author: ross.schofield@imperial.ac.uk
PDF

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, L051002 – Published 6 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1zxb-jyrf

Abstract

We report the measurement of thermal photon statistics from a semiconductor photon Bose-Einstein condensate operating just above the condensation threshold. We identify a regime where coherent, single-mode emission occurs while still demonstrating significant photon bunching. Taking advantage of the photon bunching, along with the continuous-wave operation and high photon flux, we demonstrate optical range sensing using a photon Bose-Einstein condensate. We characterize the precision of the range measurement and analyze the dependence on the condensate’s pump power and resulting coherence properties.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (28)

  1. J. Bloch, I. Carusotto, and M. Wouters, Non-equilibrium Bose–Einstein condensation in photonic systems, Nat. Rev. Phys. 4, 470 (2022).
  2. J. Marelic, L. F. Zajiczek, H. J. Hesten, K. H. Leung, E. Y. X. Ong, F. Mintert, and R. A. Nyman, Spatiotemporal coherence of non-equilibrium multimode photon condensates, New J. Phys. 18, 103012 (2016).
  3. T. Byrnes, N. Y. Kim, and Y. Yamamoto, Exciton-polariton condensates, Nat. Phys. 10, 803 (2014).
  4. J. Schmitt, T. Damm, D. Dung, F. Vewinger, J. Klaers, and M. Weitz, Observation of grand-canonical number statistics in a photon Bose-Einstein condensate, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 030401 (2014).
  5. F. E. Öztürk, F. Vewinger, M. Weitz, and J. Schmitt, Fluctuation-dissipation relation for a Bose-Einstein condensate of photons, Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 33602 (2023).
  6. J. Klaers, J. Schmitt, F. Vewinger, and M. Weitz, Bose–Einstein condensation of photons in an optical microcavity, Nature 468, 545 (2010).
  7. R. C. Schofield, M. Fu, E. Clarke, I. Farrer, A. Trapalis, H. S. Dhar, R. Mukherjee, T. S. Millard, J. Heffernan, F. Mintert, R. A. Nyman, and R. F. Oulton, Bose–Einstein condensation of light in a semiconductor quantum well microcavity, Nat. Photonics 18, 1083 (2024).
  8. M. Pieczarka, M. Gȩbski, A. N. Piasecka, J. A. Lott, A. Pelster, M. Wasiak, and T. Czyszanowski, Bose–Einstein condensation of photons in a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser, Nat. Photonics 18, 1090 (2024).
  9. P. L. Bender, D. G. Currie, S. K. Poultney, C. O. Alley, R. H. Dicke, D. T. Wilkinson, D. H. Eckhardt, J. E. Faller, W. M. Kaula, J. D. Mulholland, H. H. Plotkin, E. C. Silverberg, and J. G. Williams, The lunar laser ranging experiment, Science 182, 229 (1973).
  10. S. Pellegrini, G. S. Buller, J. M. Smith, A. M. Wallace, and S. Cova, Laser-based distance measurement using picosecond resolution time-correlated single-photon counting, Meas. Sci. Technol. 11, 712 (2000).
  11. M.-C. Amann, T. M. Bosch, M. Lescure, R. A. Myllylae, and M. Rioux, Laser ranging: A critical review of usual techniques for distance measurement, Opt. Eng. 40, 10 (2001).
  12. R. H. Brown and R. Q. Twiss, Correlation between photons in two coherent beams of light, Nature 177, 27 (1956).
  13. J. Zhu, X. Chen, P. Huang, and G. Zeng, Thermal-light-based ranging using second-order coherence, Appl. Opt. 51, 4885 (2012).
  14. P. K. Tan, X. J. Yeo, A. Z. W. Leow, L. Shen, and C. Kurtsiefer, Practical range sensing with thermal light, Phys. Rev. Appl. 20, 014060 (2023).
  15. R. N. Clark, S. G. Bishop, J. K. Cannon, J. P. Hadden, P. R. Dolan, A. G. Sinclair, and A. J. Bennett, Measuring photon correlation using imperfect detectors, Phys. Rev. Appl. 22, 064067 (2024).
  16. J. L. Figueiredo, R. C. Schofield, M. Fu, R. A. Nyman, R. Oulton, H. Terças, and F. Mintert, A quantum kinetic theory of photon Bose-Einstein condensation in semiconductors, Rep. Prog. Phys. (2026).
  17. A. Loirette-Pelous and J. J. Greffet, Photon Bose–Einstein condensation and lasing in semiconductor cavities, Laser Photonics Rev. 17, 2300366 (2023).
  18. P. Wyborski, A. Broda, I. Sankowska, T. Czyszanowski, J. Muszalski, and M. Pieczarka, Thermal equilibrium of light-matter interaction in InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells, J. Lumin. 286, 121403 (2025).
  19. J. Schmitt, Dynamics and correlations of a Bose–Einstein condensate of photons, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 51, 173001 (2018).
  20. S. Kim, B. Zhang, Z. Wang, J. Fischer, S. Brodbeck, M. Kamp, C. Schneider, S. Höfling, and H. Deng, Coherent polariton laser, Phys. Rev. X 6, 011026 (2016).
  21. R. Loudon, The Quantum Theory of Light (Oxford University Press, 2000), 3rd ed., p. 438, https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-quantum-theory-of-light/rodney-loudon/9780198501763.
  22. M. Drechsler, F. Lohof, and C. Gies, Revisiting the Siegert relation for the partially coherent regime of nanolasers, Appl. Phys. Lett. 120, 221104 (2022).
  23. S. M. Ulrich, C. Gies, S. Ates, J. Wiersig, S. Reitzenstein, C. Hofmann, A. Löffler, A. Forchel, F. Jahnke, and P. Michler, Photon statistics of semiconductor microcavity lasers, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 043906 (2007).
  24. Y. Tang, H. S. Dhar, R. F. Oulton, R. A. Nyman, and F. Mintert, Breakdown of temporal coherence in photon condensates, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 173601 (2024).
  25. F. Wagner, F. Schiffers, F. Willomitzer, O. Cossairt, and A. Velten, Intensity interferometry-based 3D imaging, Opt. Express 29, 4733 (2021).
  26. A. M. Pawlikowska, A. Halimi, R. A. Lamb, and G. S. Buller, Single-photon three-dimensional imaging at up to 10 kilometers range, Opt. Express 25, 11919 (2017).
  27. B. Schwarz, LIDAR: Mapping the world in 3D, Nat. Photonics 4, 429 (2010).
  28. R. C. Schofield, Range finding with a photon BEC (2025), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17965490.

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. Applied 25, L051002– Published 6 May, 2026
  • Received 17 October 2025
  • Revised 17 December 2025
  • Accepted 27 March 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation